Ringing the bell for gender equality, stock exchanges around the world have partnered with Women in ETFs (WE) in support of International Women's Day.
Since founded in 2014, WE has developed its platform to connect, support and inspire both men and women around the world in the ETF industry.
Today has seen the likes of the Australian Securities Exchange, Borsa Italiana, Deutsche Boerse and Euronext Paris open the market in support of the 5th anniversary of IWD. State Street launched its 'Fearless Girl' campaign earlier this week at the London Stock Exchange which will be ringing the bell for equality next Tuesday, 12th March.
Gender equality, whilst still having some way to go, is seeing regular changes to support equal rights within the financial sector. Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) ETFs, which includes gender equality, have seen significant inflows throughout 2018 and is expected to grow.
In Europe, Lyxor and UBS have listed Gender Equality ETFs which are comprised with companies with sufficient gender balance. The Lyxor Global Gender Equality (DR) UCITS ETF's benchmark is comprised of 150 companies which are highly scored according to Equileap's 19 factor methodology.
Equileap's criteria takes in to consideration the company's gender balance at non-executive, executive and senior management roles. The organisation also looks at promotions, career development, policies and opportunities for both men and women.
Some recent senior moves within the ETF industry include WisdomTree's recent hire Lidia Treiber who is heading the European research team and Amundi's new head of ETFs, Ashley Fagan.
